Guest post by Miranda Nahmias at www.mirandanahmias.com
How do you measure your online biz success?
The measurement of success is different from person to person. Some entrepreneurs might define success as having a huge email list with tons of networking contacts, others might only define success as having to do with sales and profit.
Regardless of what success means to you, it’s extremely important to track certain aspects of your online business in order to guarantee that you’ll have sustained growth. The good thing is that there are plenty of tools that you can utilize to help you measure your online biz success!
How to Measure Your Online Biz Success
Google Analytics
Search engine optimization is easy to track these days, which is good, because if nobody is visiting your business online, then you can’t really expect to achieve success. Luckily, there are multiple ways to track your site’s traffic and SEO using Google Analytics!
Organic Traffic: Specifically checking your organic (aka unpaid) traffic can be very telling in regards to what keywords are leading internet users to your website.
Most Visited Pages: Knowing which pages on your site are clicked on the most can tell you what content is popular. Within your analytics, you can see which blog posts are retaining the most traffic. Use Google Analytics to find your most popular blog posts to discover what your audience really likes. Use that information to create more content like that, or help you get ideas for a paid product.
Referral Traffic: This is where you can see what other sources are bringing visitors to your site. Guest posting on other blogs and publications, landing pages, social media ads, and more can count as referrals.
If you need an introduction to Google Analytics, Jenn has a webinar you can watch that is perfect for anyone who is non-techy and wants to start to focus on their web traffic, as well as a FREE Google Analytics 101 course that will walk you through set-up and the basics step-by-step.
Facebook Groups
Conversing in Facebook groups can help be a hugely successful way to expand your business network. My mentor Julie, from Create Your Laptop Life, once shared a tip with me that I still use to this day:
If you’re wondering whether or not you’re truly making strides with Facebook groups, make it a point to keep track of all the people you talk to from all the Facebook groups you participate in.
Set up a spreadsheet to keep track of all your Facebook groups and your subsequent leads. You can categorize them like so:
- Names and email addresses of the leads you get
- Job postings you responded to
- Follow-ups made and need to be made
- Discovery calls scheduled and completed
- Clients booked and not booked
If you’re having trouble getting clients, use your spreadsheet to discover patterns and figure out where in the process you are having trouble. Are certain Facebook groups not giving you enough traction? Are people not responding to you? Are the discovery calls not going well?
Narrow down where you aren’t succeeding, and then work to improve that specific part of your onboarding process.
Social Media ROI
Many business owners find social media marketing to be a hassle, and rightfully so. But, when it’s planned out accordingly, you can use social media analytics to track conversion rates and return on investment (ROI).
There’s no need to feel overwhelmed by the thought of calculating ROI — Buffer provides a useful guide to explain why it’s important to measure ROI and how you can start tracking it immediately.
Before you start calculating your ROI, determine what your goals are. Do you want more followers? Do you want more click-throughs on your website? That goal is your “return.”
The next part is deciding on the monetary value of that return. Then you can figure out your investment through the cost of time spent on social media, the tools you use, and the amount you spend on advertisements.
You can also measure your social media engagement.
For example, Facebook provides “insights” which can be downloaded for you to view in a spreadsheet format. From there, you can track the reach, the number of comments, and the numbers of likes and shares for each one of your posts. This is a great way to measure your online biz success, because it tells you which methods are working and which ones can be eliminated or improved upon in regards to your ROI.
Customer Base Growth
Many online businesses focus on the size of their audience. The more people that see your business means that your number of “raving fans” will grow, which can convert into paying customers. Growing an email list is one way to track how large your dedicated audience is growing.
When visitors sign up to join your email list, they are welcoming you into your inbox. As far as online businesses are concerned, that’s like a stranger inviting you into their home. So take advantage of that! Keep those visitors around by providing them with engaging content that gets them excited about you and your business.
Pay attention to the results of your emails. What’s the bounceback rate? What’s the open rate? How many clicks are you getting?
All of those numbers will help you determine what type of content you should consistently share with your potential customer base. Hubspot goes into greater detail with their explanation of inbound marketing.
Customer Satisfaction
Do you know what your audience thinks of your brand, your services, your products, YOU?
Pay attention to the feedback your audience gives you. Sending out surveys is one way to gather this input. Encouraging your customers to leave reviews on your Facebook page is another. No matter what method you choose, you should frequently request feedback from your audience. Their opinion matters most!
Also, if they had a poor customer experience, they are 50% more likely to share their story on social media versus a good experience. That can be a nightmare for any business owner to hear. If you work hard to put your customers first, though, there will be more and more positive reviews coming your way!
Measuring your online biz success means consistently relying on numbers and statistics, but it’s not a bad idea to integrate other aspects of benchmarking into your business as well.
Taking the time to actually listen to your audience and discover what they truly want from you can add immeasurable value to your brand and business. Most people flock to businesses that go out of their way to show customers and clients that they care. Make sure to introduce caring as a big part of your strategy, and you’ll start to notice a positive change when you measure your online biz success.
Running your own online business is a never-ending learning process. It’s like being a student in a class where your grade doesn’t matter, but what does matter is how you learn from your mistakes, and how you grow from your experience. Everything that you’re learning along the way is super important to consider when you measure your online biz success.
What are your favorite methods to measure your online biz success? Tell us in the comments!
About the Author
Miranda Nahmias is a client acquisition and systems specialist who runs a business blog and an elite team of U.S-based VAs at www.MirandaNahmias.com. Miranda is passionate about helping female online service providers achieve their dreams in the most stress-free way possible.
Find Miranda on her:
- Blog: http://www.mirandanahmias.com
- Services: http://www.thevacollective.com/work-with-us/
- Freebie: www.mirandanahmias.com/client-attraction-formula
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